ACC Field Hockey Championships Underway -- Cards play today -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS FH FACES VIRGINIA TODAY

The 2020 ACC Field Hockey Tournament is off and running and three matches took place yesterday. In quarterfinal action, Virginia bested Wake Forest 2-1, North Carolina had no trouble with Boston College 4-0 and Syracuse got a goal in overtime to defeat Duke 3-2. Here's a recap of the quarters: 

VIRGINIA 2 - WAKE FOREST 1

Laura Janssen scored both the Cavalier goals to open quarterfinal action in a 2-1 win over the Demon Deacons. With the win, Virginia advances to the semifinals to face Louisville today at 1:30 on Karen Shelton Field in Chapel Hill on the North Carolina campus. The #4 seed Virginia squad got the first score of the contest when they earned a penalty corner with 58 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Janssen took a deflected shot by Wake Forest goalkeeper Tori Glaister and sent it back past the Wake goalie to make it 1-0 UVA

No other scores occurred in the remainder of the first half.

Wake Forest came back to tie the match with 7:29 remaining in the third quarter. The Deacs earned a penalty stroke off an illegal touching of the ball in front of the goal and Alexis Grippo won the one-on-one battle against Virginia goalkeeper Laura Hausheer to make it 1-1. The squads went into the fourth quarter locked up at 1-1 and were even in shots taken at eight each.

The game decider came just 1:11 into the fourth quarter. Virginia drew a penalty corner and , once again, Janssen tracked down a missed goal attempt and scooted the loose ball into the goal for a 2-1 Virginia lead that the Cavs would not relinquish the rest of the way.

NORTH CAROLINA 4 - BOSTON COLLEGE 0 

The #2 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels had little trouble against a #7 College squad that was playing only their third game of the fall season with a convincing 4-0 sweep of the Eagles. 

Payton Wirth got the Tar Heels on the board for the first time midway through the first quarter when she field an attempt from the left side of the net that got past B.C goalkeeper Jonna Kennedy. The unassisted score made it 1-0 and that's the way the first quarter ended. UNC would look to Wirth again in the second quarter and the sophomore got her second score with about 12 minutes left in the second frame off a rebound on a penalty corrner attempt to give UNC a 2-0 lead that they would take to halftime. 

The squads played a scoreless third quarter until the final 44 seconds, when Madison Orobono tracked down a blocked shot by Kennedy and knocked it past the BC defense to set the tally at 3-0. UNC would add a final goal with a little over two minutes remaining in the game, Erin Matson following up a blocked shot on a UNC penalty corner attempt and drilling the rebound into the back of the net for the Tar Heels final score of the contest. 

UNC held a 26-13 advantage in shots in the second quarterfinal game and dre 15 penalty corners, compared to five for Boston College. Wake goalie Kennedy was busy, collecting 11 saves and North Carolina goalie Amanda Hendry turned away nine Boston College attempts. 

The win was legendary UNC head coach Karen Shelton's 700th of her career. 

SYRACUSE 3 - DUKE 2

The #3 seed Syracuse spotted #6 seed Duke two first quarter goals but rallied back to tie the contest and force an overtime. In the "first score wins" extra session, the Orange got the victory to advance to the semifinals.

Early on, it was all Duke. Just a minute into the contest, the Blue Devils found Alayna Burns wide open in front of the net and she blasted a shot past Syracuse goalkeeper Piper Hampsch to make it 1-0. Nine minutes later, the Durham squad found success again when Darcy Bourne took the feed on a penalty corner and tallied the Blue Devils second score. Duke scored a third time in the quarter but the call was reversed and the initial period ended with Duke on top 2-0.

Syracuse methodically battled back and found success five minutes into the second quarter. Laura Graziosi took a feed a let a missile loose from the left side of the circle after some fancy footwork and drew the Orange within one. The half ended with the score 2-1 Duke leading.

Eefke van der Niewenhof tied the contest up with a shot off a penalty corner after 5:22 of play in the third quarter. Try as they might, neither squad could find a deciding goal in the fourth quarter and the squads went to overtime. 

Overtime in college Field Hockey is a 7-vs-7 set up on the pitch, with each team using a goalie and six other players. It opens up the field quite a bit and the action is a bit more frentic and fast-paced than in the regular time. 

Duke's upset bid ended rather quickly in overtime. With just 2:56 expired in the ten-minute overtime, Syracuse's Graziosi created a steal from the Duke attack and took the ball in front of Syracuse goal, where she fired a missile past Hampsch for the game winner. 

So, the action held true to seedings yesterday, as the #2, #2 and #4 seed advance to he semis. Let's take a look at Louisville vs. Virginia today: 

LOUSIVILLE VS VIRGINIA

The Louisville Cardinals come into the semi-final tilt against UVA with a 7-1 record. The Cards scored two victories over the Cavaliers in the fall regular season matches. Louisville defeated UVA 5-2 on October 23rd and 2-1 on the 24th. 

In the first match, the Cards took it took the home-standing UVA squad early with two first quarter goals, one by Mercedes Pastor and the other from Aimee Plumb. The Cards led 2-1 at the half, but Pastor found success early in the third quarter with a score and, after a Virginia score, Madison Walsh gave the Cards a 4-2 lead after three. The Cards would get a final score from Margot Lawn with about four minutes left in the contest for a convincing 5-2 win. 

The following day, UVA gave the Cards a much tougher contest. The two squad battled through a scoreless first half and it wasn't until midway through the third quarter that UofL got on the board, when Pastor knocked in a shot on a penalty corner. UVA would tie it with six minutes gone in the fourth quarter but Louisville got the win as time was running out of regulation when Charlie van Oirschot intercepted a Cavalier pass, forwarded the ball to Pastor and she fed Madison Walsh near the UVA goal.

Walsh took aim and managed to scoot the ball between the legs of UVA goalie Laura Hausheer with 10 second left in the match...for the 2-1 Cardinal "W". 

What do I expect today? First off, the weather won't be a factor with ideal conditions, sunny skies, no rain threat and unseasonably warm temps expected in Chapel Hill in the mid seventies for the early afternoon opening pass-back. The only dubious factor is the annoying shadows cast on Karen Shelton Field in early afternoon contests. 

The Cards can expect an intense effort from the Hoos to shut down Pastor, but this is a Louisville team with plenty of scoring options -- so we might see Lawn, Walsh, Erica Cooper and a multitude of other Cards take aim at the UVA net. 

Defensively, Louisville will rely on the strong goal-tending abilities of Hollyn Barr and the defensive play of Alli Bitting and Megan Schneider to keep the ball away from danger. I'll guess a 4-1 Louisville win over UVA and also predict that UNC will hold field against Syracuse to set up a Cards vs Heels final on Sunday. A tired UVA squad might have trouble keeping up with the fresh-legged Cardinals, UVA's opening match forced them to exert a lot of effort and energy. 

As mentioned earlier, game time for Louisville vs Virginia is 1:30 p.m. and the Orange and Heels will follow about an hour after the first game is completed. The matches are being shown on the ACC Network and the commentary/play-by-play has been quite good and accurate so far. 

Go Cards! 

paulie

  

A Winning Weekend - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball Wins

In a match that, in a normal year, would've been Senior Night, the wide net Cards finished off the complete sweep of a good Syracuse squad.  In the CCRH, we all concluded that last night's volleyball match should be closer and more competitive than the Friday night match.  While the results were still a 3 set sweep, the play was much more competitive, and the set scores show it, 25-18, 25-21, 27-25.

Amaya Tillman and Aiko Jones probably
getting a block

The Syracuse squad in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena last night was much more like the Syracuse squad we all expected to see here in Louisville.  The Orange outblocked the Cards 9-7, and held Louisville to just .216 hitting.  Of course, the New Yorkers only hit .136.  The lesson being that just slowing down your opponent's offense isn't enough, you have to generate some offense of your own if you want to win games.

Things started well for the Cards, with a jump out to a 8-2 lead in the first set before the Orange seemed to wake up a little bit.  The two team would largely trade points the rest of the way through this set, but Syracuse would not be able to close the gap.  In the end, a powerful hit by Anna DeBeer would get the Cards the early set lead.

Louisville would play from behind in the 2nd when Syracuse got a 4-0 run early in the set to pull out from a 5-5 tie to 9-5.  More even play in the set would see Syracuse maintain that lead through 16-12 when the Cards would go on a mini run of three to shrink the gap, but not close it.  Finally, the Cards had enough and went on a six point run to take the lead and stretch it out to 22-18, helped in the process by Tori Dilfer's strong serving.  Syracuse could do nothing to close the gap, and Anna Stevenson would close this one out with a bit of an awkward looking, but effective, hit in the middle.

Aiko Jones getting to the hit before the
blockers can close out

The last set was a game of runs.  It started inauspiciously for the Cards with a pair of attack errors, but they quickly composed themselves and took a 6-2 lead including a string of three straight Aiko Jones kills.  The Orange would immediately get three of those back on good serving by the Israeli member of the Syracuse team, Ella Saada.  The Cards offense was playing well, but errors, mostly from the service line, kept them from putting together the next run.  The Cards would push out a slim lead 13-9, but then the Syracuse blocking would be instrumental in an 8-1 run to eliminate a four point Cardinal lead and get out in front at 18-15.  A pair of three point mini runs by the Cards would close down that lead and push the set into needing bonus points, tying it up at 24.  Finally, Aiko Jones would say, enough is enough and with a kill, a joint block with Amaya Tillman, and another kill would put the bow on this one, and send Syracuse back home without a set win in the weekend at all.

From a subjective and stats driven analysis, the same conclusions.  Our passing and digging were better this match.  This has been the weakest link of a pretty strong chain, but the numbers look good, with 16 digs for Libero Alexis Hamilton, and 12 for full-rotation player Claire Chaussee, the rest of the squad was all in the low to mid single digits.  I'd like to see more out of the DSes that are seeing time on the court, mostly Ayden Bartlett who only had a pair, but none from Alexa Hendricks, Mia Stander, and Ceci Rush is a little concerning.  To be fair to this trio though, they are mostly being used as serving specialists right now, so their time on the floor is limited.  Credit Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones being fully capable of playing full rotations for limiting the role of the DSes.

Freshman Anna DeBeer showing her power

In hitting, Aiko Jones led the team with 17 and a reasonable .270, the newcomer, freshman Anna DeBeer showed her power with 12 on .259.  Perhaps keep an eye out this week for a Freshman of the Week honor?  I haven't looked around the league to see what others have been up to in comparison, but I'll be keeping an eye out.  The other Anna, Stevenson, only had seven kills, but it was an extremely efficient seven on nine attempts and only a single miscue, for .667.  A trio of service aces is a decent showing, but more importantly, keeping the service errors from getting out of control with only five helps.

Louisville will take the next week off, and then finish off the season the week after with perhaps the biggest challenge of this odd-ball season by heading up to Pitt for a pair of matches.

Field Hockey Wins

Wake Forest and Hurricane (well, Tropical Storm by that point) Delta made things interesting in Winston-Salem yesterday in Field Hockey.  The Cards would get the win 2-1 with scores in the 1st and 4th quarters.

A significant discussion point around this one was the impact tropical system Delta would have on the play and the field.  It wasn't clear, even as game time approached, just how much rain would be involved, and based on the comments from the play by play and color people on the telecast, it was looking like they would get away with minimal impacts, right up until the first pass.

But the heavens would open up and a significant amount of water would fall in the 1st half of play.  Normally I would point out that turf fields are routinely sprayed down with water to improve the playing surface for field hockey, so a little bit of rain just means a lower water bill for the hosting team.  However, in this case, there was enough rain in a short period of time to cause ponding on the field and that will have a dramatic impact on passes and part of the game, even altered how injections on penalty corners were attempted by the team to try to avoid water puddles.

The rain would largely stop, or at least slow down to a very light rain, and the field drained well for the 2nd half.

Beyond Delta, Wake Forest would keep things interesting as well, equally the Cards mark for Shots on Goal with 5, keeping Hollyn Barr busy in the cage.  When you broaden to overall shots, the Cards only held a slim edge at 12-10.

The Cards scoring got started late in the 1st quarter with Erica Cooper picking up a cross from Madison Walsh and firing it home. That was Cooper's 2nd goal of the season.  Wake would press their attack in the 2nd quarter, but Barr would get a pair of excellent saves to keep the Demon Deacons off the scoreboard in the first half.

That wouldn't hold in the 3rd quarter, though as Anne van Hoof would get a score four minutes in.  And, yes, van Hoof is indeed from the Netherlands as you might have guessed from her name.  The Cards would press their attack in the later part of the quarter, with eight shots and five penalty corners, but would not be successful in any of them.

The offensive attack would pay off in the opening minute of the 4th quarter, with the injection from Alli Bitting to Meghan Schneider for the stop to present the shot to Emilia Kaczmarczyk who fired it into the cage.  That would also be Kaczmarczyk's 2nd goal of the season.

Meche Pastor lead the team in shots, with 6, but she only put one on frame.  To her credit, however, for much of the game, she was drawing two and three defenders off of other Cardinal players to contain her.

The Cards will face Wake Forest again today at 2pm, again on RSN (so look around at the various Fox Sports Channels, Fox Sports South is a likely candidate).  This match up will not count for the conference record, but will apply to the overall record of the teams, the joys of being in the ACC, the only conference in NCAA DI playing field hockey at all.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Finally, I think it was a winning outing for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  With the normal full house, Case, Jared, Paulie, and myself ran through analysis and results of Volleyball, Field Hockey, and Women's Soccer in our ongoing quest to share the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports.

A fun hour, that we kept pretty close to the hour limit so we could shift our attentions over to the field hockey game starting right after.

If you missed it, of course you can join the fun below, or via the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour podcast which should be available at this point via all your normal podcast outlets and directories.

Five Questions for...Justine Sowry -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

9-1 CARDS HEAD TO #4 SYRACUSE

COACH HAS A NEW RED WALL IN HER OFFICE! 

Undefeated on the road this year and ranked #7 in the nation...the Louisville Field Hockey team is off to their best start since 1977. We had the chance to catch up with head coach Justine Sowry on Wednesday prior to their departure for Syracuse and took a look at past, present and future for the Trager Stadium dwellers...here's five questions with Justine:



1) TELL US ABOUT THE TRIP TO CAROLINA LAST WEEKEND? 

"It was a great trip, Paulie. In our many conversations about the team, I've been critical about areas we need to improve upon...but playing against Wake Forest was probably our best game of the season so far...and maybe over a few years. I had to watch video to find areas to improve upon because we played fantastic field hockey winning 2-0."

"We followed it up against Appalachian State. It's always hard to come back on a Sunday after a tough contest on the road and they had more energy than us in the first half probably...but we eventually controlled the tempo and went pretty deep into our squad to get the 4-1 victory. To come away with two road trip wins in an environment that wasn't always easy is very pleasing."

2) YOU HEAD TO SYRACUSE FRIDAY FOR MAYBE YOU'RE TOUGHEST GAME OF THE SEASON? THEY WERE #1 AND NOW #4...

WILL Q SHOW UP FOR THE SYRACUSE
VS. LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY GAME?

"This is definitely a challenging stretch for us. Syracuse is a quality program, they're the defending national champions. They attack with numbers. They put a lot of pressure on you defensively. Wake Forest prepared us for that pressure...we just have to tidy up a couple of areas and make sure we're on the same page up there. They're strong in the midfield and it'll be our job to put pressure on their backfield." 



3) AFTER SYRACUSE, YOU RETURN FOR A FIVE GAME HOME STAND. FOUR OF THESE OPPONENTS ARE IN THE TOP 25. A TOUGH CHALLENGE.

" It is really a tough stretch for us. We know our ACC opponents are always going to be tough and the two BIG 10 opponents coming in are tough as well. The BIG 10 is much stronger this year...they go five, six teams deep in the rankings. It is an incredible opportunity for us to see where we're really at." 

4) THE NORTHWESTERN GAME IS ALL-AMERICAN BANNER REVEAL AFTERNOON. WHO ARE THE PLAYERS THAT WILL BE REVEALED ON THE BANNERS? 

" Vic Stratton, who was a excellent defender for us and is currently a volunteer coach for us is one. Her parents will be here from New Zealand for the ceremonies and that's a very exciting thing for her and our team . Ayeshia McFerran became an All-American last year also, as a freshman, which is a first for us. 

Step Dancing is quite difficult...it's trained Ayeshia
well for goalkeeping, we surmise. 

5) I RECENTLY DISCOVERED THAT AYESHIA IS SKILLED AT IRISH STEP DANCING AND PLAYING THE FLUTE. ANY CHANCE WE COULD GET HER TO PUT ON A HALFTIME SHOW? 

" I know she'd certainly be up for that challenge and we're well aware of her dancing skills. The flute I wasn't as aware about. I don't want her playing the flute, though...[ laughter ]... 


( Be sure to catch the entire Sowry interview on our Saturday radio show...THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR. This week (weather permitting) we'll be doing the show live from the Ohio River at Louisville Rowing's RED AND BLACK REGATTA. 
The show starts at 11 a.m....on WCHQ 100.9 FM and streams live on the Internet at www.crescenthillradio.com  Take Crescent Hill radio with you wherever you go by downloading the WCHQ app...available at the website.)

paulie
xxxxx 

WSOC battles #7 Duke to a scoreless tie...Volleyball, Field Hockey on road tonight -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Written while battling a balky laptop that does not want to save or allow me to preview posts. I think I better call...GHOSTBUSTERS! ) 


CARDS, BLUE DEVILS GO 110 WITH NO SCORE

Sammy Hagar claimed he couldn't drive 55. John Fogarty and Creedence Clearwater Revival insisted 99 1/2 wouldn't do. Nigel Tufnel, of Spinal Tap, felt the need to go to 11 and Chicago wasn't sure if it was 25 or 26 to 4. Three Dog Night insisted 1 is the loneliest number that you'll ever know.  Alice Cooper was 18...and didn't know what he wanted. 

OK...enough of the musical number and artist ennui...

Last night Louisville women's soccer traveled to Durham, NC to face #7 Duke and after 110 minutes of play, the squads were right where they started on the scoreboard. 0-0, nothing to nothing...zip and zilch. 

That isn't the whole story of the two-overtime thriller...both squads had near misses with shots on goal...especially Duke...and Cardinal goalkeeper Taylor Bucklin earned her scholarship monies with two "did-you-see-that?" saves (two of her season-high seven). 

Louisville (6-2-2, 1-0-1) came out defensive-mined. It wasn't quite the "build-a-wall in-front-of-the-goal" strategy that Ball State used on the Cards two weeks ago...but the majority of the first-half action took place on the Cardinals part of the field...Duke had five of their seven shots on goal in that first 45 minutes (compared to zero, zip, zilch for the Cards) but none of them entered the net.

Here's a fun stat (avert your eyes, Justine Sowry)...these two squads have now played a total of 440 minutes and neither team has scored a goal. 

It is a good, if rather boring, philosophy to employ when you are on the road against a quality opponent. Led by Inger Katherine Bjerke...who the Duke announcer on ACC Network Extra referred to as "Beercheck" a couple of times...the Cards routinely had 7,8 or 9 players back in the defensive role of making sure that nothing got past the posts. 

It looked like the Blue Devils would break the scoreless match in the 71st. minute. Taylor Racioppi (whose name the announcers got right) slipped the Cardinal defense and found herself right in front of Bucklin with the ball. A shot was fired, Bucklin managed to get a knee in front of it and the ball bounced to the left side of net...inches short of going in. I almost had to go do a beer-check after that one. Bjerke was there also...but I'm not sure if she realized what was going on. 

LINK: SHOT DENIED !

The Blue Devils out-shot Louisville 31-9...but after the five first half shots on goal...they only managed two more the rest of the way. Louisville did get their offense a little more employed as the contest went on and attempted five shots on goal. The Cards were firing away with about the same frequency as the Blue Devils in the last seven minutes of regulation but the scoreboard (and the Duke defense) refused to move. 

Our columnist Case Hoskins has lamented about the whole two overtime process. And, it was clear that both of these teams were gassed in the second overtime...each team only getting one shot-on-goal opportunity in the 10 minutes. I'd like to see a strategy shift in college soccer to eliminate ties. Sure, go ahead and play your first ten minute overtime if you wish...but go to a one-on-one shootout against the goalie after that if it is still tied. First one to score wins the game. Or go to "first-one-to-3". Have the coaches meet at mid-field and play rock, paper, scissors. Anything. Just get rid of these extra 10 minutes.

Ties on the road against top ten foes are better than losing. They're not as rewarding as wins. Someone once said "a tie is like kissing your sister". I don't have a sister, so I can't fully understand or have any actual experience the concept...although I've kissed a few "sisters" in my days. If you've been kissing your sister...I probably don't want to hear about it. 


Louisville comes home to face Boston College Sunday afternoon at the Lynn. Game time is 1 p.m. Dress is casual, wear something Cardinal and...

No ties, please...

My buddy Doug Bruno...he, of DePaul WBB, likes ties. Especially the Jerry Garcia style. I used to have to wear them years ago in the work-a-day world. These days, it's usually a funeral, wedding or Easter Sunday that gets one around my neck. Most useless piece of clothing ever invented...

I wonder if Doug could use a few dozen ties that span five decades? Boxed up and ready to ship...



******************************************************

VOLLEYBALL, FIELD HOCKEY TONIGHT

7 p.m. is the start time for both Louisville Field Hockey and Volleyball tonight...with both teams on the road. 

Anne Kordes' Wide-Netters are taking on Notre Dame. The Irish are an impressive 9-3 as their rebuilding process appears to be moving swimmingly along. This is the first of two challenges for the 5-5 Cards...they head to Florida State (7-2) Sunday. WatchESPN will carry the match.

Freshman Melanie McHenry leads the Cards with 126 kills this season. No other Cardinal has reached the 100 mark yet.  

Louisville Field Hockey takes a swing thru Carolina this weekend...stopping first in Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest. This is a top 15 matchup...the Cards #7 and WFU #14. Louisville is also #11 in the RPI. UofL (7-1) heads to Boone, NC for a matchup with App. State Sunday. The Cards are first in ACC home Field Hockey attendance. Having seen how the total attendance is determined...the numbers are a bit suspect...but hopefully the Cards will draw well for the WFU match. Watching Louisville v Duke WSOC last night...the bleachers maybe had 15 people in them total. The TV view shows only one side of the field, of course...but it wasn't exactly a packed Lynn Stadium. 

ACC play. Coming at ya at full speed this days. Love it! 

paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's soccer defeats Miami 1-0...Field Hockey and Volleyball tonight! -- Friday Cardinal Couple

DEFENSE HOLDS SOLID IN HURRICANE ATTACK

We don't see weather-based hurricanes in the fair city of Louisville...but the UofL women's soccer squad survived a tough battle against Bassy's Hurricane whirlwind kickers in a 1-0 win over "The U" Thursday night in the Lynn Soccer Stadium. 

Without seeing a final score...one might come to the conclusion that if a team had a 18-7 shot advantage, 9-4 edge on shots on goal and had 11 corner attempts to the opponent's 4...the team with the higher stats (Miami) won.

It's not so in this case, though.

Getting a goal from Alison Price off a Casey Whitfield cross 25:48 with in the first half....Louisville weathered the storm and got the 1-0 win...greatly aided by nine saves from goalie Taylor Bucklin. 

And...Paulie called it in Thursday's CARDINAL COUPLE...even the exact score. My 5% success rate took a definite hit here...

Sound the all-clear over the Belknap Campus...the threat is over. There will probably be a depression settling in over the Miami soccer complex today, though. 

And if Taylor Bucklin had a dream last night about soccer balls flying at her non-stop like hail...it's perfectly understandable.

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#8 FIELD HOCKEY FACES #9 WAKE FOREST

Women's sports action continues on campus tonight when the UofL Field Hockey team hosts ACC opponent Wake Forest at 6 p.m. in Trager Stadium. 

The Demon Deaconesses (or Lady Deacons ?) are 6-2 on the season with overtime losses to Old Dominion and Iowa. They do have a win over Duke in ACC play. 

Last year the teams split...Louisville winning the regular season matchup 2-1 but falling in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals to WFU 2-1.

This should be a good one at the corner of Warnock and Floyd and admission is free. 

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VOLLEYBALL VISITS THE IRISH TONIGHT

No....Anne Kordes and crew aren't on a flight to Dublin or overseas to kiss the blarney stone...but they are in South Bend to take on ACC foe Notre Dame tonight for some wide net action.

It's the ACC opener for Louisville (6-4) against a Notre Dame squad (5-7) that split with Louisville last season. The Cards swept UND at the KFC YUM! Center 3-0 in the first match up but fell 3-2 in South Bend. 

Louisville will look to improve on the errors and serving woes that befell them in the loss to UK on Sunday. The Cards will head back to the KFC YUM! Center after this one to host Miami on Sunday.

paulie
xxxxx





  

Defeated in Durham...Field Hockey now forced into waiting game -- Friday Cardinal Couple

2-1 loss to Wake Forest eliminates Cards from ACC Championships

Louisville Field Hockey's inaugural entry into ACC Tournament play turned out to be a short stay. Wake Forest used two second half scores to build a lead on the Cards and then held on late to advance to the semifinals with a 2-1 win and face #1 seed Virginia tomorrow.

The Cards got a late goal..a bit by accident...on a penalty corner with four minutes left in the contest. Chile Garcia's initial shot bounced off Alyssa Voelmle's stick to Erin McCrudden, who sent the loose ball past the WFU goalie to draw UofL within one.


Hoping to get the tying score, Coach Justine Sowry pulled Cardinal goalie with two minutes left to increase the offensive capabilities. The Cards could not capitalize, though...and Wake retained possession and ran the clock out. 

What does it mean for Louisville's chances to get an NCAA at-large berth? Consider the 2013 NCAA Championships when all seven ACC schools got selected. Maryland was ACC then. 

Also consider that Virginia was 15-5 (Louisville's current record), Duke 14-6, UNC 16-5, Wake Forest 11-6 and Boston College 12-7. Syracuse, Duke, Maryland and UNC were seeded in the top 4 and hosted first round games. Virginia hosted also. 

The fact that Boston College, ranked #3 in the tournament, lost 5-2 to #6 Syracuse today probably doesn't help the UofL chances. #2 UNC needed overtime to get by #7 Duke.


A look at last years' NCAA Sweet Sixteen shows (7) ACC schools, (2) Big 10 schools (Penn St. and Michigan St.) and automatic conference champ qualifiers in UConn, American, Princeton, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Delaware and Old Dominion. 

Stanford will most assuredly be in the mix this year. So will eight other conference qualifiers. Figure in at least four more (semifinal, maybe? participants) in the ACC and the numbers start to get tight.

The Cards were #8 in the most recent coaches poll and #11 in the NCAA RPI rankings. The Cards have quality wins over Duke, UNC and Wake Forest in the regular season. Add in wins over Michigan, Michigan St., IU and New Hampshire and the Cards look pretty good. Let's hope the loss to Liberty doesn't come back to haunt them.

We'll know Sunday night starting at 10 p.m., when the NCAA Field Hockey Selection Show will be shown on NCAA.com and the 19 teams announced. 

*                       *                       *                     *                  *

Maybe the Field Hockey squad should take the pressure off,

head south and join Louisville Volleyball in Miami tonight. 

Louisville will face Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. on


 Friday night at 7 p.m. This will be the third time in history

 the two teams have faced off, with the Cards notching both

 wins. The Hurricanes (15-7, 8-3 ACC) are coming off a split

 as they notched a 3-0 victory over NC State and took a 3-0

 loss against No. 9 North Carolina. Senior Savannah Leaf led

 the Canes offensively in both matches with double-digit

 kills. Miami hit .323 against NC State while hitting .142 in 

the loss against North Carolina. 

paulie
...
..
.